Railway General Knowledge.

[GRALISTAIR]

Nepal?

 

[Calthrop]

Nope -- Nepal has always meagrely rail-endowed; and what it has had, exclusively 2ft.6in. gauge.

 

[Calthrop]

Could it be part of China? More towards the western end. I have no clue whatsoever though!

-Peter

Not China. Everyone so far has been, geographically, basically "warm"; but not on the money.

 

[Peter C]

Not China. Everyone so far has been, geographically, basically "warm"; but not on the money.

Hmm. The southern bit of Russia? I seem to remember reading something about maybe a metre-gauge line there. I know they have a few different gauges.

-Peter

 

[Calthrop]

Hmm. The southern bit of Russia? I seem to remember reading something about maybe a metre-gauge line there. I know they have a few different gauges.

-Peter

Sorry -- you're getting colder (not in the climatic sense, though you're citing Russia ).

 

[Peter C]

Sorry -- you're getting colder (not in the climatic sense, though you're citing Russia ).

Haha!
Maybe Bangladesh then?

-Peter

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Former British colony so I am going with Pakistan and my second guess would be Sri Lanka

 

[Calthrop]

Once again, people are circling around the target, but not quite hitting it. I'd reckon someone is bound to get the country soon, if just by process of elimination...

 

[DerekC]

Burma/Myanmar?

 

[Calthrop]

Burma/Myanmar?

That's the "answer country" ! @DerekC -- getting the country, makes you the winner at all events; but the land concerned, is a big one -- as per initially in my question: could you give some sort of pointer (great precision not looked for) as to which part of its rail system has / had the double-track section?

 

[DerekC]

That was a pure guess - although I did know that metre gauge was used there. How about Yangon (Rangoon) to Mandalay? Another guess, I am afraid.

 

[Calthrop]

That was a pure guess - although I did know that metre gauge was used there. How about Yangon (Rangoon) to Mandalay? Another guess, I am afraid.

You guess rightly: double track over the first 350 km. of that main line north from Yangon; as far as Pyinmana. (At the present time, the Yangon -- Mandalay line is undergoing big upgrading works; occasioning near its southern end anyway, temporary inconveniences and general "mess", including reduction of parts of the route to single track. Don't know how or whether, "double track once again" will feature in the new plan.)

Bo DerekC (giving you appropriate Burmese honorific -- any film-actress overtones are purely coincidental) -- your floor.

 

[DerekC]

Never been called "Bo" before!

What happened on the following dates which influenced the development of the British railway network:

7th November 1805

8th December 1870

 

[xotGD]

I'm guessing that one of them is the date that Broad Gauge was abandoned by the GWR?

 

[DerekC]

I'm guessing that one of them is the date that Broad Gauge was abandoned by the GWR?

No, that was in 1892.

A hint - the dates relate to a person.

 

[Calthrop]

A hint - the dates relate to a person.

Birth and death dates? I at first thought I.K. Brunel; but have it in my head (maybe mistakenly) that he died in early middle age, or before.

I'll guess -- with some hesitation -- Charles Dickens. I'm sure he died in 1870; and some of his writings had, I think, some bearing and influence on factual railway matters -- criticism of the early railway companies' excesses?

 

[DerekC]

Birth and death dates? I at first thought I.K. Brunel; but have it in my head (maybe mistakenly) that he died in early middle age, or before.

I'll guess -- with some hesitation -- Charles Dickens. I'm sure he died in 1870; and some of his writings had, I think, some bearing and influence on factual railway matters -- criticism of the early railway companies' excesses?

Brunel died in 1859 at the age of 53.

Charles Dickens did indeed die in 1870 but on the 9th June. He did an influence on railways and was, of course, a passenger on the boat train wrecked at Staplehurst in 1865 - also on the 9th June, which I am sure somebody somewhere thinks is significant! There is an interesting article about the influence of railways on his writing on the Dickens Museum website at:

https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/cha...orced-like-a-cucumber-dickens-on-the-railways

Dickens lived at a time of great expansion of the railways. In 1830 the ‘Rocket’ (the most famous of the early locomotives) made its first commercial journey on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Dickens was eighteen. By the time of his death in 1870, there were over 15,000 miles of track. (The current figure is around 10,000 miles.) This rapid expansion had profound effects on Victorian society which Dickens was able to reflect in his writing ........................

..............in sum, the development of the railways was a great instigator of change in Victorian England – and this is reflected in both Dickens’s writings and his life. In his novels and journalism, he vividly illustrates its impact on everyday life, whether for good or bad

Anyway, neither of them. Somebody who had direct influence on railway building.

 

[SteveyBee131]

I'll guess Robert Stephenson?

 

[DerekC]

Not Robert Stephenson (1803 - 1859) although this guy knew the Stephensons well. He did a lot of work in France, Spain and Canada as well as in Britain.

 

[Calthrop]

A shot largely in the dark -- Thomas Brassey?

 

[DerekC]

@Calthrop - might be in the dark but you hit the target!

Your floor.

 

[Calthrop]

Thanks: but it was on the way to becoming a "ten little -- whatevers" situation; and I'd never have thought of Brassey without your work-in-foreign-parts clue. I request "open floor".

 

[xotGD]

What links 47480 and 50031?

 

[Ashley Hill]

Take away the Robin and you have a pair of Hoods.

 

[xotGD]

Take away the Robin and you have a pair of Hoods.

Indeed you do.

I remember someone at Newcastle Central faking a nameplate rubbing of Hood from 47480.

Your turn...

 

[Ashley Hill]

I remember someone at Newcastle Central faking a nameplate rubbing of Hood from 47480.

How cheap! Here's one that's probably up your street,
Which three class 37s were spuriously named after the 1st,2nd and 3rd East Anglian Regiments in 1963?

 

[xotGD]

How cheap! Here's one that's probably up your street,
Which three class 37s were spuriously named after the 1st,2nd and 3rd East Anglian Regiments in 1963?

I seem to recall that 004 was one of them, but that's as far as I get.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

How cheap! Here's one that's probably up your street,
Which three class 37s were spuriously named after the 1st,2nd and 3rd East Anglian Regiments in 1963?

D6702, D6703 and D6704 ?

 

[Ashley Hill]

I seem to recall that 004 was one of them, but that's as far as I get.

1 out of 3

D6702, D6703 and D6704 ?

2 out of 3
Clue,they're not necessarily sequencial! Old or TOPs nos accepted.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

D6700